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Facebook - What can it do for your business?

Written by: Daniel Patricio

Article Overview: Facebook has rapidly evolved from its humble beginnings as an insular college community. Growing up - no longer jut a haven for college students, high school students or old parents desperately trying to fit in with the latest fad or online buzzword.

Facebook - What can it do for your business?

Facebook has rapidly evolved from its humble beginnings as an insular college community. Growing up – no longer jut a haven for college students, high school students or old parents desperately trying to fit in with the latest fad or online buzzword.

A recent study by Comscore would lead us to believe that the 25-34 and 35+ age groups are in fact the largest growing demographics with growth of 181% and 98 % respectively. So what does this mean for you and more importantly what does this mean for your business?

The power of Facebook lies in that it is a decentralized social location for open communication. I have personally have found that with our customers we have experienced a much more frequent and rewarding interaction with our clients, that is discouraged by the increasingly formal etiquette of email in the workplace.

I have found that my network of Facebook friends is an amalgamation of my disparate myspace and LinkedIn networks. Your typical network of Facebook friends typically would consist of old friends, college friends and acquaintances, coworkers, past clients, business partners, or even… your boss. Of course you, determine who you allow in your network and you can adjust your privacy settings accordingly. However if you are a natural networker and a generally likeable person - it can be a very dynamic communication tool for expanding and capitalizing on your network. Facebook is a great facilitator in breaking down the boundaries between social and business circles.

So I bet you are asking yourself how this liberal encroachment of your privacy might help you. I have personally found that Facebook brought me in contact with business contacts that I have met over the years. I have found partners to collaborate on my current projects, effectively pulling together the power of my network. If you are sourcing start up capital, looking for a graphic artist or potential clients, a little digging through your network and you pull together a team to push your business forward.

Or even consider the possibilities of doing some snooping on a client prior to a meeting. By browsing a person Facebook profile you can get an idea of who this potential client is and how your business can help them, as well as breaking the ice. Casual browsing of a person’s profile will reveal mutual contacts, interests, hobbies, political affiliation, where they vaction, magazines or books they read and even where they like to spend their Friday nights.

Imagine being able to contact the CEO of your ideal client with a polite, personal message and with the salesperson’s best weapon, knowledge of the customer. The possibilities are there.

Next week I will be evaluating the advertising Facebook is offering and how it might fit in with your marketing strategy.

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Article Tags: business circles, business contacts, business partners, college students, Facebook



Related Forum Posts
Re: Facebook -- personal vs. business? - Hi Terri, I agree with you about Facebook as I didn't really view it as a business tool when it was in it’s infancy and was invited originally by a friend, then using it I approached a few business contacts and then it became muddled. It is not easy to separate business from social on Facebook and business advertising is paid for so after a while I ditched Facebook completely for business purposes and just use it occasionally for friend’s updates etc. The other thing that I will have to try and sort out is that because of all the cross linking that we all do I will quite often find a post from my business website appearing on Facebook and I have to delete it before it is read by friends who I am sure wouldn't be offended but I don't want that. For that reason I use Twitter and all other social networking sites where you can build relationships as well as business contacts (or just business). If I could go back to Facebook and register separately I would do it but as you say I don't think that is possible. thanks for the post, Mal.
Re: First Facebook Ad - Experiment! - Facebook ads are very easy to set up and manage. One difficulty I found, however, is in the difference between Facebook ads and Google ads. With Google you try and find the best keywords for your product, but with Facebook you try to home in on the demographics of the customer. Trouble with that is that I felt that anybody who has keywords such as "Internet business" on their Facebook profile is likely to **already have** what I am offering! (Of course, they might be looking for a new and better version but...). I have just broadened my ads appeal to "small business" and "independent business owner" to see if that makes a difference. It adds about 20,000 people to my potential market...
Re: Facebook Advertising? - Facebook has more than 700 million active users and half of them log in on a daily basis. Through Facebook advertising, you can be sure to reach any particular segment. Conventional advertising models are expensive and difficult to reach a narrow target. Facebook advertising is one option that can get you results and target specific user groups. You may be the local beauty parlor, restaurant or a Fortune 500 organization, but eBizUniverse will show how to build your brand equity through Facebook advertising. Consider these ideal scenarios: You own a restaurant and wish to target those who are recently engaged to be married for their catering business. All you need to do is to find the women with the relationship status of “engaged” on Facebook and you have your desired segment with Facebook Ads. (See Sample Ads Below) There is a birthday special that your restaurant is offering and the Facebook Ads would be displayed only to those whose birthdays are in the offing. An event is being organized and you wish to target local college graduates, who are single and 25-35 years old. They are on Facebook and you can reach them with Facebook Ads.
Re: Twitter vs Facebook - Regarding Facebook Ads. I have found them to have a poor click thru rate and a poor conversion rate. When people are on Facebook, they are there for a social element, so it is a soft sell. If you want to advertize your business, then go to Adwords, it is cheaper and a lot more effective. Facebook Ads are still too new in town.
Re: Twitter vs Facebook - [quote="edkaini753":1g9bkej0]I have been usinf Fcaebook my all friends are on there, i never use twitter[/quote:1g9bkej0] I think it's important to use social networks the way it works best for you -- i.e., there is no magic formula. I'm glad you've found what works for you! I have a Twitter account for my business that is broadcast only. Then I have a Twitter account for myself, that broadcasts most of my business stuff plus I post and interact on it personally. My Facebook profile is 95% personal. I've removed all of my old Facebook friends who I didn't really know/had never met -- now I enjoy reading my Facebook status, versus before when it was clogged with updates I didn't care about (not to mention unwanted friend requests, event invites, etc.) I have a separate Facebook page for my business.


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